


Man of Swords

by taxicab12



Series: more to me than you can dream [21]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Loss of a limb, M/M, Post-Canon, Update: that essay is now done, and I can promise this is better writing quality than that, and instead dropped Nicky and Joe there, but not graphic, but only bc I’m supposed to be writing an essay on the battle of agincourt, technically I did actual historical research for this using an actual historical text
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taxicab12/pseuds/taxicab12
Summary: “It’s going to hurt and it’s going to tickle,” Nicky said, sitting beside Nile. “Try to keep your mind off of it.”“How, exactly, am I supposed to keep my mind off of it?”“I remember the first time I lost a limb,” he said. “Well, technically the second. The first was when Joe cut off both my arms once, but I was already dead at the time and they were back by the time I came to.”“Wow,” Nile said. “I know you guys killed each other, but that...”“Height of romance, isn’t it?” Nicky smiled.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Series: more to me than you can dream [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878034
Comments: 30
Kudos: 414





	Man of Swords

Logically, Nile knew there was no real reason to panic, but no amount of time as an immortal can keep you calm when you’re suddenly missing an arm.

“Shh,” Nicky said, squeezing the hand she still had. “It’ll be okay, Nile.”

“You chopped my arm off,” she said.

Her arm had been, still was technically, stuck under a wall that had collapsed on top of her. There had been no other way to get her out without bringing the building down on top of them.

“You’re in shock,” he said softly. “We have to get outside, we don’t want them to have to dig us out of the rubble.”

She let him help her to her feet, guiding her outside and away from the collapsing structure of what had been a house.

She sat down in the grass, trying not to stare at the stump of her arm.

“It’s going to hurt and it’s going to tickle,” Nicky said, sitting beside her. “Try to keep your mind off of it.”

“How, exactly, am I supposed to keep my mind off of it?”

“I remember the first time I lost a limb,” he said. “Well, technically the second. The first was when Joe cut off both my arms once, but I was already dead at the time and they were back by the time I came to.”

“Wow,” Nile said. “I know you guys killed each other, but  _ that _ ...”

“Height of romance, isn’t it?” Nicky smiled. “We were different people back then. The first time I _remember_ losing a limb was in France, around 1415.”

Nile laughed at that. “That doesn’t get less ridiculous to hear.”

“Well, maybe someday someone will say that to you. 2020, such a ridiculously long ago time.”

She didn’t want to consider that.

“Anyway, France and England had been at war for more than thirty years and would continue to be at war for another eighty or ninety, though we didn’t know that at the time.”

“Is this a war I would know the name of?”

“Historians call it the Hundred Years’ War. They’re not a very creative bunch.”

She recognized the name, if not the details. “What did you call it back then?”

Nicky raised a brow. “Probably just those English bastards are back again.”

She giggled. “I’m guessing you were on the French side then.”

“No.” He smiled lightly, as if at a memory. “We didn’t take sides. There wasn’t a side that felt right to take. What there was was a lot of plundering by the English. We didn’t go fight in all those battles, but we did try to help defend French villages.”

“And that’s where you lost an arm?” She went to glance at her own arm, which was aching and ticking just as he’d said, but Nicky gently turned her face back to him before she could see.

“A leg, actually, but yes. I still don’t know how he did it, but some English knight got a lucky swing and lopped off the bottom half of my right leg.” He tapped on his leg as if to prove a point. “Left me to bleed out on the ground. Except, I was just barely in reach of this English archer who had just died. Now, Nile, longbows were pretty new in Europe back then and I’d never shot one before, but I was angry and full of adrenaline and decided to try my luck. I couldn’t walk, but I managed to get upright enough to shoot an arrow and I aimed it right at the knight who’d taken my leg.”

“You hit him?” She wasn’t sure why she was so surprised. Nicky’s aim was second to none.

He laughed. “No, not even close. And I knocked myself over in the process. But I loved the feeling of that bow. I’d always been just a man of swords before that, back in my day, bows were a coward’s weapon. But I suppose I should be grateful some English bastard chopped my leg off. I probably wouldn’t have gotten into projectile weapons so early if he hadn’t. Maybe I have him to thank for making me such a good shot with a rifle.”

Nile laughed. “Where would we be if he hadn’t, then?”

“More and more I’ve been thinking about that.” His expression turned serious. “How our actions have influenced history. And how, by extension, the actions of people long dead have too. The world doesn’t feel so big when you think of it like that.”

“That’s...” she thought about it. “Amazing.”

“Sometimes I think I’m thinking too hard about it. How different would the world be if, for example, my father hadn’t insisted I become a priest. I might never have gone off on crusade, never have met Joe. Who knows, maybe I never would’ve become unkillable?“

“You’ve never mention your father before,” Nile said, lightly so he could ignore it if he wished.

“I don’t remember him, not really. But it’s entirely possible I owe him everything. How strange is that?”

“It’s not so strange.” She put her hand on his arm.

“Try squeezing your hand,” he said.

“What?” She pulled her arm, now fully regrown, in front of her, prodding at it with her other hand as if to check that it was real.

“I told you,” he said. “Just keep your mind off it.”

“Is that what you did?” She formed a fist with her new hand.

“No, I stared at it the whole time. Wasn’t quite fun though.”

Joe approached them. “There you are. Everything okay?”

Nicky smiled up at him. “I was just telling Nile about the time I lost my leg.”

“Which one?”

“The first.”

“Ah,” Joe said, “you mean the time you shot me in the shoulder.”

“He managed to skip that detail,” Nile said with a laugh.

“I told you,” Nicky said, “I missed horribly.”

Joe held out a hand to Nile and she extended her new arm, letting him pull her to her feet.

Nicky stood. “Have we lost Andy?”

“She’s at the car. You two were the ones that got lost.”

“I’ll shoot you again,” Nicky said, but managed to say it softly and with love.

Nile moved to follow them, then hesitated. “Is my original arm still in the building?”

Nicky lightly pulled her along. “Try not to think too hard about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: so I just finished my essay on this time period and the word count came out exactly the same as this fic which I’m taking as some sort of sign, not sure if that’s good or bad


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